Survey shows U.S. forging ahead on EMRs
Internet use is already the norm
Think the U.S. health care industry is years away from using electronic medical records (EMRs)? The findings of a recent survey of health care executives, medical records professionals, and consultants may surprise you.
In the eighth annual survey of health care computing trends sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in Chicago and Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto, CA, 34% of the 1,200 respondents reported their organizations have invested substantially in the equipment and software needed to implement EMRs. Other findings include:
• 26% reported that they are evaluating their options but have made no decisions about EMRs.
• 18% reported they have a strategic plan but haven’t made any investments.
• 6% reported that they had started an EMR project but have put their plans on hold.
Health care organizations may be preparing to travel down the information superhighway, but they have many concerns about maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of patient records in an electronic environment. Their biggest concern is a possible breach from within.
In fact, 42% of respondents reported that an internal breach of security was their umber one EMR concern. Another 17% reported concern about an external breach by computer hackers.
But those concerns about the security of EMRs haven’t prevented health care organizations from embracing electronic transfer of information capabilities. An overwhelming 87% of survey respondents reported using the Internet. Here’s a breakdown of how they use it:
• 87% for e-mail;
• 35% to post health care information for consumers;
• 66% for on-line clinical research;
• 4% for insurance reimbursement processing;
• 5% for access to patient records.
Some organizations have elected to stay off the Internet for now. "We weighed one option of linking via the Internet with our third-party administrator, but we decided there weren’t enough firewalls built in yet," says Joyce M. Munsell, RN, BSNED, MPA, CCM, manager of health care resources in the Irvine, CA, office of Parker Hannifin, a manufacturing company based in Cleveland. "We’re holding off until everyone has a greater comfort level," she says.
(Editor’s note: Complete results of the Trends in Health Care Computing survey can be accessed through the HIMSS World Wide Web site at www.himss.org.)
Here’s sound advice on keeping faxes safe
Few case managers go through their work day without sending or receiving at least one fax. Have you given much thought about who has access to the information you fax?
Before sending faxes containing sensitive patient information, case managers at Parker Hannifin, a manufacturing company based in Cleveland, answer the following questions, says Joyce M. Munsell, RN, BSNED, MPA, CCM, manager of health care resources in the company’s Irvine, CA, office:
• What are you transmitting?
• Who are you transmitting to?
• Where is the transmission going?
"We often call before faxing to make sure an appropriate person is on the other end to receive the fax," Munsell says. "We always call after sending a fax to make sure it has been received by the appropriate person."
"People are so used to faxes they’ve begun to take them very casually," says Kathleen A. Frawley, JD, MS, RRA, vice president of legislative and public policy services for the American Health Information Management Association’s (AHIMA) Washington, DC, office. (For details on AHIMA and its publications, see Resources, p. 82.) "We’ve published guidelines for secure fax transmissions to make people more aware of the confidentiality issues."
AHIMA’s fax guidelines include:
• Check state laws and regulations regarding fax information.
• Obtain patient or other appropriate signatures on all release forms before sending out patient information.
• Locate fax machines in secure areas with limited access.
• Identify one individual to monitor incoming faxes.
• Read instructions on who should receive the information.
• Seal faxes in an envelope before delivering them.
• Deliver faxes to the appropriate person.
• Include a cover page explaining that the contents of the fax are confidential.
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